Monday, June 2, 2014

The Land Conservancy of New Jersey’s Community Garden at
South Branch Preserve is in its second year. The garden has expanded to 148
plots with only 6 plots not sold this year. Gardeners are planting everything
in their plots from tomatoes, squash, and beans, to strawberries, lettuce, and
cucumbers. The gardens are filled with trellises and posts to support the
bountiful vegetables that will soon come. Some gardeners have personalized their
gardens by adding stones to the outside of their garden or placing windmills in
their garden. Each garden is unique in its own way and it will be exciting to
see them later in the season.

Even on an
overcast day, people are still working in the garden.

Some
gardeners look at each other’s plot.

Part of The Land
Conservancy of New Jersey’s goal is to restore former farm land back to a
forested area. Restoration plans at The South Branch Preserve have already
started, with the planting of 950 trees and 3500 shrubs in the back three
fields behind the community garden. The planters had a very organized system of
how to plant the trees on these large fields (Shown above).

One person would drive a tractor while someone else sat on the back of it. Then a plow, attached to the tractor, would be lowered in order to dig up the soil where the tree would be planted. The person on the back of the tractor would place a tree into the newly dug hole and other workers would pat the soil down around the tree. Planting started on May 17 and continued all of that week. In a couple of years, the once flat, open fields will be transformed into the beginnings of a large, dense forest!